Got Titanic fever? Try a cruise, show, dinner

— -- If you haven't already booked passage on the Titanic Memorial Cruise, which will retrace the route of the ill-fated luxury liner, you've missed the boat. The 12-night Southampton-New York sailing commanding fares of up to $16,000 sold out 18 months ago.

A Groupon deal hawking a 13-day voyage that will visit the 2½-mile-deep wreckage via Mir submersible for $12,500 (that's 79% off the $59,680 asking price!) sold in minutes this month.

Still, there are plenty of other opportunities to catch Titanic fever in the run-up to the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the unsinkable ship on April 14-15. From dinners that re-create the final night's menu, to a line of Titanic-inspired jewelry, to the opening of two major Titanic-themed museums and musical tributes at others, the centennial of the world's most famous sea disaster has sparked a marketing frenzy.

There's still availability on an eight-night Titanic Anniversary Cruise departing New York on April 10. Like the Titanic Memorial Cruise sailing in the opposite direction, the voyages are timed to reach the wreck site in the North Atlantic on April 14 and 15, when there'll be a 2:20 a.m. memorial service aboard both vessels.

A number of descendants of those who perished will be on board both cruises, which were organized by a British travel agency. Other passengers are longtime Titanic "enthusiasts," says agency owner Miles Morgan. Titanic's place in recent popular culture also has stoked demand.

"You've got people who are new to Titanic. They played the Celine Dion song at their wedding," he says.

"And then there are the compulsive cruisers. They've done everything else and are looking for something different."

Among land-based Titanic-centric doings:

•Titanic Belfast, a waterfront development, opens in Northern Ireland March 31 near the spot where the liner was constructed. Its centerpiece is a dramatic building covered in metal shards that's designed to resemble the ocean liner's hull. Inside are nine interactive galleries. A nearby trail traces Belfast's industrial past. Titanicbelfast.com

•Titanic claimed the lives of 549 Southampton, United Kingdom, residents, most of them Merchant Navy crew. Sea City Museum, opening in April, will spotlight the lives of Merchant Navy members. Its first temporary exhibit, Titanic, the Legend, will examine why the disaster is the object of such enduring fascination. Seacity.co.uk

•The Titanic Museum Attractions in Branson, Mo., and Pigeon Forge, Tenn., will stage a musical tribute dubbed A Night to Remember on April 14, culminating in the sounding of distress signals and the lighting of an eternal flame. The ship-shaped museums re-create interiors from Titanic and house hundreds of artifacts collected from the vessel's debris field. Tickets to the show: $45. titanicpigeonforge.com and titanicbranson.com

•Halifax, Nova Scotia's connection to the doomed liner was a matter of fate. Titanic sank 700 nautical miles east of there, but because it was the closest city with good rail connections to America, it became the hub for recovery operations.

Consequently, it was the final destination for 150 passengers and crew who are buried there. A Night of the Bells procession on April 14 will go from the city's waterfront to Grand Parade Square for live performances. The city's Maritime Museum of the Atlantic, which claims a number of significant artifacts from the ship (including a proverbial deck chair) presents a special exhibit April 12-Nov. 4 on cable ships and their role in the recovery operation. destinationhalifax.com/titanic; museum.gov.ns.ca/mma

•St. Louis' Titanic connection is more tangential: A reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch was aboard the Carpathia, a passenger ship that helped in the rescue. During the voyage back to New York, he interviewed survivors, wrote the story on rolls of toilet paper and returned with the scoop of his career. An 11-course meal dubbed A Taste of History: Last Dinner on the Titanic is set for the grand stage at the vintage Fabulous Fox Theatre on April 14. Period dress is encouraged. Tickets are $500, though other Titanic-themed events that weekend cost as little as $10. Titanic2012stl.com

•Among the more colorful Titanic passengers was Denver socialite Molly Brown. The Molly Brown House Museum in Denver is offering Titanic-themed tours through April. The exhibit, The Unsinkable Molly Brown: Denver's Heroine of the Titanic, runs through 2012. mollybrown.org

And in the dinnerware, costume jewelry and plush- toy departments:

•Royal Crown Derby, the original manufacturer of porcelain for Titanic's first-class à la carte restaurant (the initial order included 1,300 assorted pieces, including 25 "slop basins"), is reissuing the pattern. Cost of a 10-inch dinner plate: $140. http://www.royalcrownderby.co.uk/

•The Titanic Museum Attractions has teamed up with Jewelry Television to market the Titanic Jewelry Collection, costume pieces "meant to memorialize some of the amazing women who were on Titanic," spokesman Rick Laney says. The collection sold out in an hour during its first Jewelry TV airing in January. It has now restocked; expect frequent rotations of the show in April. Cost of a blue resin, crystal-edged pendant reminiscent of the piece worn by Kate Winslet in the 1997 blockbuster movie: $49.90. jtv.com

•Steiff, manufacturer of stuffed toys, has produced three limited-edition bears for the occasion. Polar the Titanic Bear ($290) is a replica of a Steiff toy carried by a child on the ship. (Both child and bear survived.)

After the liner sank, the manufacturer created black-mohair mourning bears, which quickly sold out. A commemorative reissue of the bear costs $215. An exact replica of the 1912 model is yours for $585. http://www.steiffusa.com/